First off, these seem like they were designed to be eaten with a soup — a nice chicken noodle soup would be the obvious match for these. Since these dumplings do have soup broth in them, we wanted to make sure we ate them without soup so we could comment on that broth without having it mixed with the broth from a soup. Now, Trader Joe’s actually recommends eating them by putting one on a large spoon, biting a tiny hole in the dough so the soup runs into the spoon, letting it cool for a little bit, then putting the whole thing in your mouth. We obeyed these very specific instructions in order to get the full experience.

Second, there are two cooking methods listed on the box (and you can read both of those in full if you scroll down to our package scans at the bottom of this page.) While the stovetop option seemed like it probably delivers better results, we didn’t have a steamer basket immediately on hand. This forced us to use the microwave method. The folks at Trader Joe’s actually seem to recommend this method, so again, we believe we’re commenting on the Steamed Chicken Soup Dumpling experience that Trader Joe’s intended.

With those two caveats out of the way, let’s dig in and see what these dumplings are all about!

First off, we have to say these things are delicious. The broth is very tasty — it’s savory, but it has just a touch of sweetness to it. The ground chicken is perfection. It practically melts in your mouth, and it has a wonderful texture that’s closer to ground beef than what you’d expect from chicken. It also tastes great.

The only complaint we have here is with the shells. We found ours to never quite soften on the top, so the topmost portion was still a bit crispy — you can see this pretty clearly in the image above. We don’t think this is how they’re supposed to turn out (judging from the picture on the box) and we’re pretty sure this is a result of the microwave cooking method. For the record, we used the full two minutes of cook time and still ended up with crisp tops.

Of course, this is a pretty minor complaint. It certainly doesn’t ruin the experience, and these are tasty enough that we found it difficult to get too grumpy over the condition of the tops of our shells.

Surprisingly, Trader Joe’s considers the whole box to be a single serving. There’s no goalpost-shifting or calorie-hiding here; what’s in the box is exactly what’s going into your tummy. So the fact that all six dumplings add up to a total of 250 calories is pretty impressive. The sodium is 640 mg, which is a little high, though we’d say it’s slightly below average for a frozen food. Of course, if you decide to eat these with a soup, you’ll have to add the nutritional content of the soup to these. Plus, these aren’t very filling on their own, so they’re more of a snack or a side than a full meal.

The folks at Trader Joe’s believe these dumplings to be an experience that’s very hard to find outside of a Trader Joe’s freezer aisle. We’re going to have to take their word for that since we haven’t tried to locate anything like these at any other stores or restaurants. Still, we can say with confidence that the Trader Joe’s Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings are absolutely fantastic. The next time you swing by the Trader Joe’s freezer aisle, keep your eyes peeled for these steamy, soggy treats.

To learn more about the cooking instructions, nutrition content, or ingredients in these Trader Joe’s dumplings, check out our package scans below.